So, this chapter is a bit different from the other ones - why? You'll see! So, without saying anything else - enjoy your reading!

Chapter 10:

It had only been two days since Elena had moved in with us, but we hadn't seen much of her. She ate lunch and dinner, but she always slept through breakfast. As far as I'd understood that was normal teenage behavior, so I let her sleep and overlooked the fact that she wasn't getting three meals a day. If she would begin to grow thinner, I'd do something. I couldn't force feed her, but I sure as hell could compel her to eat. I didn't want to use my vampire 'powers' on her, but it could become necessary. I wasn't going to let her starve, and I wasn't going to let her get anorexia, no matter how much she wanted that.

It was around 9pm on her third day in our house, and I was sitting downstairs, enjoying a cup of warm blood. She'd retreated to her room, like any other day, while I was sitting downstairs. Caroline was working on some stuff in one of the upstairs offices, and Stefan had recently gone out to kill some bunnies. I'd honestly never understand how he could live of that stuff. Animal blood tasted horrible, and it never satisfied me.

I had no idea how I was going to keep the human facade up, now that I had a human living here. Caroline and Stefan were doing pretty good – they had somehow become used to acting as humans, and keeping their blood lust and fangs hidden away from everyone else. I wasn't used to that at all, and Elena had to find out at some point. If she didn't, I had to tell her when the time came for her to make her own choice. I wanted her to make that decision about turning or not herself. I didn't want her to be forced into turning, like I was. If she wanted to turn, I'd happily feed her my blood and snap her neck, but if she didn't, she shouldn't turn.

How on earth was I going to explain all of this to her?

I downed the glass in my hand, and went to the kitchen to get a refill. Nothing but the empty bag from before was laying on the kitchen table.

God damnit, how many times had I told Caroline to keep the upstairs fridge stocked? Now I had to go all the way down to the basement to get more.

I rolled my eyes and started making my way to the stairs.

I frowned as Elena almost bumped into me in the hallway. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked all sorts of disheveled. What the hell had she been doing? She was always staying in her room, so what was she doing down here?

"Elena," I said, trying to greet her somewhat friendly, and not like I was completely confused about seeing her in this part of the house. I couldn't help but notice just how ironic it was the I was on my way down to get more blood, similar to her own.

"Damon," she said, looking down at her converse. I raised one eyebrow and tried to catch her gaze. Why was she acting so shy all of sudden?

"It's nice to see you outside your room. You're free to go exploring, you know," I said, smiling at her. She nodded, still keeping her eyes on her shoes. I decided to let her go, no matter how flushed she looked. She was probably just embarrassed about being caught snooping around. Nothing wrong with her exploring the house.

She sidestepped around me and continued down the hall, her head still bowed slightly. I continued in the other direction, making my way to the hidden door to the basement...

And found it open.

Why was it open? Stefan, Caroline and I had decided to have the basement door hidden a long time ago. We had our storage of blood, stakes and other vampire stuff down there, and we certainly didn't want anyone else going down there. It could expose our secret to everyone.

I heard the front door slam, and I immediately knew who had been down here and forgotten to shut the door behind them.

Elena.

She would've seen everything and of course she'd be frightened like crazy now. I didn't blame her, to be honest

I wasted no time in vamp speeding outside, standing right in front of her by the gate. She ran into my chest, my arms going around her to keep her from falling to the ground.

"NO! No, let me go! Let me fucking go! What the hell are you?!"

Her eyes were filled with fear, but the fire in them wasn't far behind. She wasn't going to come quiet, that was for sure. Clamping a hand down on her mouth, I scooped her into my arms, and walked towards the house.

It didn't take long before I felt her try to bite my hand. I rolled my eyes at her, ignoring the guilt rising in my stomach. I couldn't think about that now. I needed to do some damage repair on this situation.

"Biting my hand? Seriously, Elena, how old are you?" I said with a sarcastic voice. She wriggled around, trying to get out of my hold, and biting my hand at the same time. Getting tired of her pointless fight, I moved my hand from her mouth to her eyes, cutting off her vision. Then I vamp sped inside, and up the stairs, up to her room. She'd only just started screaming when I pinned her to the bed, my hand clamping down on her mouth again. Her eyes were staring at me, obviously trying to make me let go. Did she really think she could overpower me?

Humans.

"Forget what you saw tonight. You never went to the basement, and you never want to go looking for it again. If you come close, you'll remember you have something else to do, and walk away," I said, feeling the power of compulsion run through my body. She stopped screaming, but as soon as I removed my hand, she raised one eyebrow at me, and tried to get out of my hold.

"What the fuck are you?! Let me go! I'm going to tell the sheriff about everything in your basement!" she said, struggling to get away. I frowned at her. My compulsion hadn't worked.

Ignoring her screaming, I looked her body over. She wasn't wearing any kind of jewelery that could hold vervain, and she couldn't have ingested it. I'd been keeping an eye on what she'd been eating ever since she got into the hospital. She didn't have any perfume on her either. How the hell had she resisted my compulsion? She was a normal human for God's sake.

"Elena, would you stop screaming for a moment? It isn't going to help anything, so just shut up. It's annoying," I said, trying to find out what the hell could protect her against compulsion. What was different about her, compared to other humans?

I suddenly felt stupid for not seeing earlier. She was my Singer. It was a well known fact that Singers were so much different from other humans. Why shouldn't she be able to resist to compulsion? Of course she was.

Great. The fucking only human I couldn't compel, and she'd discovered our secret. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I couldn't kill her. I just couldn't bring myself to be the one to take her life. Not one as innocent as hers.

But what else was there to do?

There was no other way than to get her used to this. Lock her up until she realized she couldn't go about and tell this to everyone, and then maybe let her go to school, if she got used to the idea. If she started telling people, it'd be easy enough to compel them, or kill them. I wouldn't mind killing them off. And maybe that'd keep her from telling anyone else.

Yup, that would have to be the solution.

"Answer me, God damn it! What the hell are you?" Elena said, her voice harsh, and the fire in her eyes rising. I rolled my eyes at her. Either she was way too brave or just incredibly stupid. She'd just seen the blood in the basement, the stakes and all of the other stuff... And she chose to command me around?

"Listen, Elena, I'm gonna let go of you now. Don't try to run again, 'cause you won't outrun me. I'll just catch you again, and this time I might have to lock you up in the basement. I really don't want to do that, so just... Don't try to run, okay?" I said, carefully letting go of her small wrists. She hadn't kept her mouth shut during my little speech, but honestly I hadn't expected her to. She kept on trying to interrupt me, and get me to tell her what was going on, but that wasn't happening.

She didn't try to run, but she did pull away from me, to the other side of the bed. As if that was going to help.

"Now, it's late. So I want you to go to sleep. I'm going to lock your door and let you think about this until tomorrow. Then I'll answer your questions. This is your life now. Nobody's going to hurt you, and you'll be fine here. You'll be safe. I can promise you that," I said, standing up from the bed. She looked at me with the same defying look in her eyes, but I didn't want to bother. I picked up her cellphone from the table besides the bed, and found her laptop in a drawer. No way I was letting her communicate with the outside world.

"No fucking way you're taking my cellphone," she said, getting up from the bed. I held the items away from her, and giving her a look that told her not to get near me.

"That's not for you to decide," I said. She tried to lunge for it, but I easily pushed her back on the bed.

"Behave."

Then I left her room and locked the door behind me, ignoring her banging on it. She wasn't going to be able to break it down. She wasn't nearly strong enough to do that.

The night turned out to be a lot longer than I'd counted on. At first, she just sobbed from her room. I felt a bit bad, knowing I was the reason for her crying. There were even a couple of times where I wanted to go to her with a glass of alcohol, not caring the least if she was a minor. She needed her sleep, and alcohol could help her with that.

I'd almost decided to do it, when I heard her door open. She'd picked the lock. Seriously?

She didn't even make it down the hall, before I caught her in my arms, and threw her over my shoulder. She kicked, screamed and tried banging on my back with her small fists. Every single thing was of course totally pointless. She wasn't going to make me let go. Did she really think hitting my back was going to make me let go of her?

"Now, Elena, I really didn't want to do this, but you give me no choice," I said, walking calmly downstairs to the basement. She screamed as soon as we reached the room with the fridge holding our blood-bags. I rolled my eyes, resisting the urge to swat her behind to shut her up. She needed to calm down, and I wasn't going to achieve that, if I started spanking her. Actually, she might just start to get afraid I would rape her.

She didn't know me very well after all.

I opened the door to the cell and put her down on the bed. She instantly tried fighting me, but it was of no use, really. I easily locked her up in the handcuffs, hating how big and threatening they looked on her tiny wrists. I wanted nothing more than to take her to my own bed, and just hold her down until she fell asleep. Maybe then I'd get a quiet night.

I couldn't do that of course. She'd get the wrong idea and then she'd know I didn't wanted to lock her up properly.

I made sure the chain was long enough she could move around, but that she couldn't escape, and then I stood up. She instantly pulled on the restraints, trying to get away again.

"I told you, I don't want to do this. I would love to let you sleep in that big comfy bed upstairs, so your pretty little body wouldn't bruise, but you give me no choice. So, just go to sleep. I'll come down at breakfast time tomorrow morning, and we'll talk this out when you've calmed down. Once you've learned to behave, you can return to your own room, and maybe even gain permission to walk around the house," I said, closing the door behind me, and locking it. Honestly, it pained me to see her like this. I never wanted to lock her up like this. I'd taken her in because I wanted to get closer to her, and because I wanted her to feel safe with me. And now everything was ruined.

I had to go through all that work to compel the sheriff to let me take her in. I should've let Jenna take her in, or somebody else. Just anyone else than me.

How fucking brilliant I am.

I sat outside the cell for a couple of hours, enjoying a bag of blood, while listening to Elena. She was still screaming, even though her voice was getting hoarse. It wouldn't be long before she wouldn't be able to talk anymore.

"Let me out! Let me fucking out!" she screamed. God, couldn't she just shut up?!

"Elena! Stop fucking screaming. You're in a house with vampires, we can hear you! Shut up, and go to fucking sleep!" I said, emptying the last of the blood bag in front of her, keeping my human face on. Finally, she became quiet, as she looked at me.

"A vampire? Seriously? You're a fucking blood sucker? Right, and next you'll tell me you sparkle in the sun?!" she said, getting up from the bed. I resisted the urge to force her to go to sleep. I never wanted to hurt her, but right at that moment, I wouldn't mind cutting off her airways until she lost conciousness

"Yes, I'm a vampire, and no I don't fucking sparkle. I said vampire, not homosexual. I'm not into glittering up. Now, start accepting this is where you're going to live, 'cause this isn't going to change. The better you behave, the more privileges you can get," I said, trying to ignore how much I liked the fire in her. And where the fuck did she learn that kind of language?!

"I have no idea what kind of sick fantasy you're trying to play out, you fucking bastard, but I am not going to be a part of it!" she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"If you know what's best for yourself, Gilbert, you'll shut the fuck up!" I hissed, walking away and hurrying back to my room.

I would have to deal with her tomorrow.

Elena's POV

I cringed, as I moved my wrist slightly. Pulling the chains off my hands had been painful, and close to not succeeding, but here I was, free and ready to fight the guy who's trapped me in the basement. Truth to be told, I didn't think I'd be able to overpower him, but I sure as hell could surprise him, and get the fuck out of here before he caught up on what was happening.

For the first time in my entire life, I had nothing to lose. My entire family was dead, and I was being forced to live with a guy I didn't even know – and then he has some sort of sick fantasy of himself being a vampire.

If only I could manage to escape and get to the sheriff. She'd be able to help me. She would lock him up behind bars, and maybe then I could go live with Jenna. Hell, I didn't even care who. Just not this guy.

I'd scraped my arm on the rusty cot in the dungeon while trying to get out of the chains, and my arm was starting to hurt. It wasn't deep or anything, but it was bleeding and it stung.

I didn't have the time to think about that, though. Damon was on his way down here, and I needed to be ready to escape. If I pushed him hard enough, it might give me a good enough headstart to let me escape. I wouldn't need to go too far. I just needed somewhere to be safe.

I got behind the door, ready to assault him as hard as possible. He wouldn't get hurt from it. He was a male, he'd just be a bit surprised and fall, right?

The door opened, and as soon as I saw his foot, I lunged forward, pushing him with all my strength.

He didn't move an inch.

I did, however, notice the scolding tea in his hand, which was now drenching his shirt and chest. And he didn't even flinch. I allowed myself to stop for a split second, afraid I'd actually hurt him. But he didn't seem to have noticed.

Then I made a run for it. His hands were around my wrists in no time, pushing me back into the cell and slamming the door behind him. What the hell was going on here?
He walked closer, and his eyes seemed to focus on my upperarm for a second. Then the most freaky thing I've ever seen happened.

His eyes turned red instantly, his blue orbs standing out even more clear. Dark veins appeared underneath his eyes, and his mouth opened slightly, exposing a set of fangs.

I couldn't hold it in. I screamed.

"Get the fuck away from me!" I said, pulling my arms, trying to get out of his hold. His grip only tightened, and I knew I would have bruises later. I whimpered slightly and quieted down, knowing that was what he wanted me to.

With a single finger, he traced the blood that'd run from the wound and sucked it off his finger. He then closed his eyes, without letting go of my wrists and slowly his face returned to the gorgeous human face he'd been wearing the times I'd seen him.

Okay, maybe he wasn't kidding about the whole vampire thing.

"Good. Now that we've got that settled, why don't you take a seat?" he said, nodding towards the bed. I raised an eyebrow at him and looked to the door, trying to figure out exactly how long it would take me to reach it.

"Don't even think about it."

I looked at Damon. He was smirking at me and slowly letting go of my wrists. As soon as they were free, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him with a defying look in my eyes.

"Sit down, Elena. It's not a request," he said, looking serious. I raised one eyebrow, and silently asked him 'are you kidding me?'. He once again rolled his eyes at me.

"Please, sit down," he then said, sighing. I let out a huff and sat down on the bed, rubbing my wrists. They hurt after the rough treatment and were already beginning to bruise. Once again, I had nothing to lose. He obviously wasn't going to kill me – if he was, he would've killed me last night, and not now. And I had a lot of questions I wanted answers to.

"Okay, then. What do you want to know?" he said, bringing a chair closer. He sat down on it, a respectable distance from me, but not enough for me to think I'd be able to escape.

"So, you're a... A... Uh..." I couldn't bring myself to say the word. I really couldn't. He wasn't supposed to exists. He was a mythical creature, not something you'd see in real life. He wasn't supposed to be sitting right in front of me, as a living proof that there was a lot more to the world than you'd think.

"Vampire?" he asked, finishing my sentence, "you can say it, Elena. It's not a bad word."

I scoffed at him, leaning against the wall behind me, trying to process this. Vampires did actually exists. There were actually bloodsucking creatures.

"So you are?" I said, wanting it to be confirmed completely.

"Yes."

He didn't say much, obviously. Oh well, I'd get him talking. Apparently I had a lot of time to spend in that house, so I might as well use the time properly.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked, fearing for the answer. I hadn't wanted to ask it, 'cause that'd probably be getting my own death certificate. At least there weren't anyone that'd miss me.

"No," he answered, no emotions on his face whatsoever. How was it even possible to sit so still? And to show so little emotion? Was that another vampire thing?

"Why not?" I asked, finding myself getting curious. Why wouldn't he want to kill me? I mean, isn't that what vampires do? Drain people of blood, IE killing them? Weren't they monsters?

"Are you that eager to die?" he asked after a short hesitation. My eyes widened a bit.

"No. But isn't that what... Oh my God, I can't believe I'm actually saying this... Isn't that what vampires do? Kill people? I mean, I kind of assume you're a lot more Dracula than Edward Cullen," I said, trying to get comfortable on the old mattress. This time I was able to get an emotion out of him. He laughed. He actually laughed! Maybe we were actually going somewhere.

"You'd be correct," he said, "some vampires prefer the bunny diet. I'm not one of them. But I'm not going to hurt you."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Sure, he didn't want to hurt me. He already had. My wrists hurt like hell, and I couldn't stop thinking of his changed face, when he'd sucked my blood off his finger.

"Then, why am I here? Why did you bring me here, what do you want from me?" I asked. This made no sense at all. He couldn't just have picked me out at random, deciding I would be the one who's life he was ruining today... Could he?

"I don't want anything from you, Elena. I want to help you. I meant what I said," he said, the laugh suddenly gone from his face. Great, we were back at no emotions. At least no emotions showing. But they'd been there earlier, and I now knew it wasn't a total lost cause.

"Why? Why me? You don't even know me," I said, raising an eyebrow. I know I was probably asking way too many questions, thinking of what was the smartest way to handle this situation, but I couldn't help it. I didn't know if I'd get the chance to ask him like this again. I'd rather use it, than to keep wondering.

"Oh, I know you, Elena. Believe me. I've known you for a while," he said, his eyes serious as he looked at me. Okay, somewhat a feeling. We were making some sort of progress here. Maybe I would just have to earn his trust and then run?

But that would hurt him, and a small part of me really didn't want to hurt him. The mere thought of him hurt made me sick.

Wait, what? Why the fuck did I feel like that? He'd kidnapped me! The hospital had told me he was an old friend of the family, and that he'd been at some of our family parties. He did seem familiar, but I didn't know him. How come I would be staying with him, and not Jenna?

And what the hell did he mean by he knew me? I'd never talked to him before, I was almost sure of that!

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked. I didn't mind the major house and all, but I'd rather be home with my actual family. Well, what was left of it, at least.

"Because you almost died. And I can't let that happen... You're safer here than anywhere else," he said. A quick flash of pain moved across his face, before he returned to the hard cold facade again. I felt my heart clench painfully at the look of pain. I didn't want him to be in pain.

Urgh, what was up with my emotions? Why would I care about him? He'd hurt me. If it wasn't for him, my wrists wouldn't be hurting right now, and I wouldn't be feeling like shit.

I scoffed at him.

"Safe? Living with a vampire that drinks human blood? Oh yeah, I feel so safe," I said sarcastically, "oh yeah, and you're holding me against my will. I can see just how safe I am."

"Last night was a precaution. I can't trust you with this secret," he said harshly. I rolled my eyes at him. This was getting ridiculous.

"Then why the fuck do you bother? Why do you care if I live or die? You're a monster from the horror stories my mom told me when I was a child. You should be plotting my murder right now! Why do you want me here?" I asked, leaning forward just a little bit. This was making no sense at all.

"I'll tell you in time." Was he serious?!

"In time?!"

"When I can trust you."

"When you can trust me?!"

"Is there an echo in here?"

I feel like I was about to explode. I was trying to get information out of him, and he was making fucking jokes. Couldn't he be serious, for just a second?!

"I'm being serious here! You hold me hostage, tell me you're a vampire, lock me up, and now you want me to earn your trust?! You have some fucked up logic, Mr.!" I said, standing up from the bed. He stood up as well, his hands ready to grab me. I felt the anger come off me in waves.

"I told you, Elena, call me Damon. Mr. Salvatore was my father, and I despised the man, so don't compare me to him. I'll see you upstairs for breakfast in 15 minutes. Go to your room and put on some new clothes. Take a shower if that's what you need. I'll make you a new cup of tea."

Holy shit.

Elena's pov! What do you think of changing the pov? I plan on it happening once in a while, but not every chapter. PLEASE leave a review, and tell me what you think. It'd mean everything to me.